MP blames austerity for school’s early closing move
AN MP has said he sympathises with everyone immediately affected by proposed cuts to a school’s opening hours.
Vale View Primary School in Reddish has said new hours will be introduced in September, with Friday closing brought forward to 12.45pm.
Labour’s Reddish MP Andrew Gwynne laid at the blame at government austerity, claiming that the state of school funding is ‘completely unsustainable.’
Mr Gwynne said: “The developing story at Vale View Primary School in Reddish is one being replicated across the country with headteachers and staff having to do more, with less resources from the government.
“I have complete sympathy with both the parents and teachers at Vale View because they both have the best interests of pupils at heart, in fact many of the parents have rightly indicated their support for the teachers and have targeted their anger squarely at the government.
“Tory-imposed austerity from Whitehall means that Vale View has around £80,000 less to spend this year in its annual budget compared with 2010, that’s £169 less funding for every pupil at the school.”
He added: “Across Stockport as a whole our borough’s schools stand to lose over £6.5 million by next year; it’s completely unsustainable for schools to keep receiving less and less support. The government needs to stop prioritising corporate tax giveaways and put that money into our schools and our children.”
A petition on the 38 Degrees website calling for a rethink of the changes has now been signed more than 800 times.
A public meeting will take place at Reddish Conservative Club, on Westbourne Grove, on Sunday, March 10 at 12noon.